8 Hairstlyes for Work and the Politics of Black Hair

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Earlier this month the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals
ruled that banning employees from wearing their hair in dreadlocks is not a
form of racial discrimination. The ruling was in response to a law suit filed
by the Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) against an Alabama insurance
claims processing company on behalf of Chastity Jones, who was offered
employment contingent upon her getting
rid of her dreadlocks. The reasoning was that dreadlocks “tend to get messy”. The
EEOC stated that the “prohibition of dreadlocks in the workplace constitutes
race discrimination because dreadlocks are a manner of wearing the hair that is
physiologically and culturally associated with people of African descent.”

Pardon my French but this is bullsh*t. Hundreds of years
later, we are still battling colonialism and the white-washing of people of
color. There is a long history of institutions and groups like schools, dance
companies and the Army creating rules that almost specifically regulate and
penalize black and brown bodies. When
read carefully, it is either written with an ethnically exclusionary worldview or is
outrageously and obliviously discriminatory toward people of color.

Just recently, a group of high-school girls in South Africa led
a protest for the right to wear their natural hair. The black students at
Petoria Girls High in South were being forced to straighten their hair because administrators
and teachers believed it was untidy and not appropriate with the school
uniform. Children of color are often receiving messages that their natural
selves are inadequate or unacceptable. That somehow the way we evolved, the way
God made us was wrong somehow. Would these teachers ever tell a girl with curly
red hair that she must straighten and color it blonde to come to school? Not
likely!

African-American people specifically have been feed Eurocentric
beauty standard or white-washed beauty since the slave plantation and it continues
today. More than 1/3 of the United States population is black, Native American,
Hispanic/Latina, Asian, or a Pacific Islander and census data suggests
non-white people will become the majority in a few decades, yet until VERY
RECENTLY there was almost no representation in media and when depicted people of color were rarely
depicted in a beautiful or in a desirable light. Asian men are emasculated and
black women’s sexuality erased or stereotyped. The saying goes "they want our culture
but not our bodies", which is why there are plenty of opportunities to point out
cultural
appropriation in the age of social media. Curves on Kim Kardashian are
desirable but obscene on Serena Williams. This is a big part of the politics of
black hair and bodies. Cornrows are a new and trendy thing on Kylie
Jenner but loc extensions are inappropriate on Zendaya.
Well live in a society that continues to discourage and even create vehicles to
attack women of color’s self-worth and beauty.

Truth is, you can have a fro or locs and be
professional, the two aren't mutually exclusive. I worked for many years in commercial banking in the south east.
I worked in a very conservative environment AND I had an afro and then
sisterlocks. I am qualified and I know how to groom myself for the workplace, the expectation for all employees. For some rigid and narrow-minded
individuals, Blackness continues to be synonymous with dirty, unprofessional or
unkempt and this is simply discrimination and/or lies.

Black hair in its natural state is versatile with your only limitations
being your patience. See below for some great natural work hairstyles.